Michelle Budiwski: Recent Episodes
Michelle Budiwski
Demanding your rights without accepting your responsibilities is not freedom, it is adolescence.
I do not know who wrote that but they definitely nailed it and we are seeing it all around us.
'Our rights, our rights' are being screamed at us from churches, hate groups, anti-vaxers and now even podcasters who want the right to say whatever they want without accepting the responsibility for their own words.
Is this how far our society has progressed? With all of our advantages of society? The wealth and privilege of our country, our access to education and technology - this is what we have come to?
That is not progression, it is regression and enough is enough. the adolescent brain is supposedly incapable of predicting the consequences of actions or the empathy to predetermine the impact of their actions on others. Unfortunately I do not believe that - I have seen more maturity , accountability and empathy in teenagers lately than I am in grown assed adults. If you cannot accept the consequences of your actions or words, perhaps you need to rethink them.
The entire world is watching Canada as we share the truth about our racist past. It is hard to deny when 215 children are found buried in an unmarked, undocumented grave on the grounds of a former Indian Residential School.
The damage that was done in this not so distant past has created a legacy of trauma, shame, guilt and pain that has and will last generations. An attempted genocide of an entire nation cannot go unacknowledged and while we mourn we must also accept responsibility.
And we are all responsible. Perhaps not for what was one, but for what we do now.
Healing cannot begin without acknowledgment and words are not enough. Each one of us plays a part in creating a new legacy for all people of Canada, we must learn, understand and teach our children about the atrocities of the past so we can ensure that they never happen again and that the damage created can heal.
And for that we are all responsible.
We are heading into the second summer of covid - a year that none of us saw coming or could have ever properly prepared for and yet - here we are.
My question is - what are you doing about it?
In 20 or 40 years when your children and grandchildren ask you how you handled the pandemic, what will your answer be? Will you be filled with anger, hate, distrust and frustration? Or will your stories be filled with resilience and creativity?
What are you doin to ensure that the memories you are creating are the absolute best that you can make them?
Like the founders of Music for the Quarantined Soul have done - are you taking advantage of the time to do something you were always putting off or are you feeding your stress and anxiety with more stress and anxiety?
You have the power - whatcha doin with it?
Manitoba's Bill C-64, is designed to modernize our provincial education system - increase the quality of education while cutting costs. Will it?
As a parent who has had at least one child in Manitoban public schools for over 2 decades, I have recently chosen to homeschool permanently - not because of Covid but because I have zero faith in the quality of our provincial education system. Asking teachers to do more with less and focusing on money instead of students. So in my opinion, no. No the proposed changes will not rectify the solution and if anything they will create larger cracks for at-risk youth to fall through and that INCLUDES the 6000 students that are being homeschooled with little if no oversight whatsoever. Our system is broken and Bill C-64 is not going to fix it.
Michelle Budiwski is joined by Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities Inc. Chairperson, @Whitney Hodgins to discuss the impact of #Covid19 on the 175,000 Manitobans living with disabilities.
From support, resources, advocacy and lobby for vaccine priority, Whitney, the MLPD and their community partners have been working throughout the pandemic to not only ensure that organizations like theirs survive, but their voices are heard!
While positive strides have been made, how do we ensure that the changes are ongoing and long lasting? How do we close the gap in our society for our most vulnerable? It starts with conversations like these!
The more awareness is raised, the more stories are told and the more we are able to see situations through the eyes of others the more we will realize that while we may all be weathering the same storm, we are far from all in the same boat!